Queens Blvd Shootout 1994Biggest gunfight in NYPD History

​Police Officer Thomas Koehler was on routine patrol in Queens when he heard the sound of furious combat. The biggest gunfight in NYPD history 278 shots were exchanged had begun a short distance away on Queens Blvd. in Kew Gardens. A single gunman was rampaging down the avenue. After killing his landlord, Wen Ping Hsu, 48, entered the Tung Shing restaurant and murdered his landlady, the cashier, in front of a U.S. congressman.​ The killer then ran up the block and into a parking garage where he dropped another victim. Then Hsu began his kill-or-be-killed gunfight with police. Thomas Koehler, 26, and his partner, Keith Dietrich, drove to the scene and rushed into the garage. One cop was hit but saved by his vest. Koehler was shot in the left leg while taking cover. The bullet one of 78 fired by the gunman tore through an artery and damaged his sciatic nerve. His leg is still paralyzed from the knee down. When his father, Tommy Sr., visited the still bloody scene on the day after Christmas, the former cop went home and suffered a heart attack. A week later he had a triple-bypass. Both he and his son lay in different hospitals for a month.From CITY FORGETS HERO COP in NY Daily News December 18, 1995

​Three people were killed and two police officers were shot and wounded yesterday in what witnesses described as a running gunfight that raged along five blocks of Queens Boulevard as several police officers chased a man with an automatic pistol.

Police Officer Thomas Koehler squinted through the crisp wind roiling the East River yesterday as he surveyed his new beat - the waterways of New York - from the prow of NYPD Harbor Launch No. 3. "I feel like a rookie again," said the 31-year-old. "I'm in better shape now than when before I got shot.​

Medal of Honor

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Medals of Honor were awarded to Officer Charles Martin, Officer Thomas Koehler and Officer Keith Dietrich. In December of 1994, Officers Martin, Koehler and Dietrich entered a Queens parking garage and were confronted with a gunman on a deadly shooting rampage. Despite the fact Officer Koehler suffered a massive leg wound and Officers Martin and Dietrich were peppered with bullets and shrapnel, the officers were able to take control of the situation, mortally wounding the suspect.

​Hampton Bays resident and retired New York Police Department Detective Tommy Koehler, 40, nearly lost his life in the line of duty 14 years ago during a gun battle that left three people dead. Koehler had to have his left leg amputated below the knee and replaced with a prosthetic limb after being shot. Koehler fought back to become a renowned distance runner and triathlete. Among his victories was a new record time for American below-knee amputee runners in the 2006 New York City Marathon. A recent family tragedy has given the already motivated Koehler greater incentive to push himself.It was a call that changed Tommy Koehler’s life forever........